


Editor's Preface to 'Of Love And Faith'

by orphan_account



Series: Another story line of the Vampire AU [1]
Category: Figure Skating RPF
Genre: Editor's preface to a biographic work, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-15
Updated: 2020-01-15
Packaged: 2021-02-27 15:13:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 695
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22269217
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: The last biographic work by Deniss Vasiljevs was published posthumously, although it was unfinished.
Series: Another story line of the Vampire AU [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1602937
Kudos: 2





	Editor's Preface to 'Of Love And Faith'

**Author's Note:**

> I think the timeline of the whole story is kind of messed up because calculating age/time is too hard??

_Of Love And Faith_ , the last work by Deniss Vasiljevs, the historian of great renown, is published ten years after he passed away. This work is a biography of his mentor, Stéphane Lambiel, whom is now widely known as one of the leading figures during the Alpen Reform.

It is also widely understood that Vasiljevs shared a great bond with his mentor. The historian always recalled his mentor with affection and admiration, which is evident in his interviews, letters, and his other works. He had also once elaborated that Lambiel was one of the reasons for him to quit his political career and venture into historical research and writing, for he wanted to tell the stories of the brave and the faithful.

As far as we know, Vasiljevs spent more than thirty years on this work. He searched for archived documents, personal and public writings, conducted interviews with those who were still around, and condensed them into this biography. We understand that this work is very different in style of writing from his other works relating to this period in continental Europe, namely _Alpen Reform: 2028-2170_ , and _Cities and Forest_. However, it is notably similar to his two other biographies: _Edelweiss and Sakura_ , and _From Lausanne to Chillon_. Although both biography works have received criticisms of overwhelming personal voice and being overly emotional, we still believe these, together with this new work, are of great literary and historical value. An account of facts can be informative, but the opinions and commentary of a historian can be more insightful.

Unfortunately, Vasiljevs was not able to finish his last piece of work, arguably the most important one for him. According to his plan and the preface written by him, this book should consist of four parts: _The Pastoral,_ starting from Lambiel’s early years as a human when he served as a Crisis First Responder; _Storm and Torment_ , which elaborates on the twenty years after Vevey Incident in 2028, until the formation of European Resistance Group in 2047; _Chasing Light,_ focusing on the struggle on the way to the constitution amendment; and _Sunrise on the Lake_ , which accounts for the events after Geneva Constitution Assembly in 2165. Although other three parts were completed and edited, there were some considerable gaps in the second part. There were some drafts on Vevey Incident and a few years following that, which we edited and included in this book; however, he wasn’t granted enough time to write anything concerning the time between 2038 and 2043. According to the limited personal correspondences available, during this period, Lambiel decided to undergo transition from human to vampire, possibly in Vasiljev’s company, as well as with his assistance. Vasiljevs had expressed that he wanted to make this biography more objective, but at the same time, he recalled his mentor’s transition with a very complex feeling. According to one of his personal friend, he once described that as ‘one of the few choices I may regret’. If we may, we would also like to hypothesize that this was the reason that he didn’t write this part of the book.

However, there was very limited resource available for us to dive into that particular period and find anything useful. As far as we now know, Lambiel was in exile in continental Europe from 2028 to 2047, possibly with Vasiljevs and Shimada; most of their lives then are now simply not traceable. They occasionally had contact with Kostner in Western-Central Europe, Tuktamysheva in Eastern Europe, together with Uno and Miyahara in Japan; but the total number of existing correspondences does not exceed ten. With Shimada passing away in the late 21st century as a human and our recent loss of Vasiljevs, we doubt if these stories would ever be told in full. We had gathered some useful references and a brief timeline in lieu of the missing part, and they can be found in the appendices.

It’s our great honor to be able to edit and publish this biography. Mr Vasiljevs had inspired us as historians, and we hope you enjoy this piece of work, as much as we enjoyed reading and editing it.

2 April 2353,

Basel

**Author's Note:**

> In case you are curious of Deniss's other books:
> 
> 'Alpen Reform' is a chronicle, 'Cities and Forest' is a collection of case studies of different political groups/parties during their reform, 'Edelweiss and Sakura' is a biography of Satoko, and 'From Lausanne to Chillon' is a biography of Chris.


End file.
